Posted on 11/30/2015 9:00:27 AM PST by Isara
I often come away from the conservative/Christian conferences I’ve attended around the country with the feeling that we’re trying to drive the car by hitting the gas and the brakes at the exact same time.
Although I have met many wonderful people at those events, and received no shortage of inspiration from the speeches I have heard, there is also a shadow that looms over everything. This shadow taunts us with visions of an army, whose soldiers run away or whose weapons jam right at the very moment in the fight when resolve and execution matter most.
And those shadows have names.
McCain. Romney. Boehner. McConnell. We may preach the antithesis of their failure theater at our gatherings, but they snuff out our song nonetheless with equivocation and platitudes. We may wave the flag for a new birth of freedom, but they break off the flag stick and stab us in the back with it.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Are we are tired of it? Yes. But how tired are we, really? Many in the conservative punditry class seem like they would give anything for Donald Trump to stop upsetting the applecart so they could simply go back to peacefully writing their nagging columns about what’s wrong with Democrats. All the while never really coming close to drawing the enemy’s blood or actually risking their lives, fortunes or sacred honors. My colleague here at CR, Daniel Horowitz, not-so-graciously refers to this far too prevalent wing of the conservative movement as the “thumb suckers brigade.”
We insist that isn’t us. That we are the tried and true foot soldiers of American Exceptionalism. That if only we had our chance to seize the battlefield’s high ground, we’d take it and never look back.
Well, then, this Christmas is the time to ante up.
A field general with an organizational army of over 100,000 volunteers. A supply train of cash as rich as anyone could hope to amass. A consistent track record of putting principle over position. And the valor to be the first one to charge into battle, and take a bullet for the cause, is standing taller than we could have possibly hoped for when the 2016 GOP presidential field began auditioning last January.
His name is Ted Cruz, and while I have long been a supporter of his, I am also stunned by the simple arithmetic now undeniably calling his name forward.
The deepest presidential field in our lifetime, including the last two Iowa Caucus winners, figured to be a battle royal from the outset. So many respectable candidates would be vying for the same conservative base that even a narrow top three finish would be viewed as a huge success.
Yet with a dozen candidates still in the race, there are only two left who, barring disaster, seem to have a shot at securing 30 percent of the vote when the Iowa Caucus sorts things out roughly 60 days from now: Trump and Cruz.
If you are an actual conservative who has supported somebody other than Cruz up to this point, let me put in plainly: I couldn’t care less what your inner child thinks about that. In politics, it is the rare man who should be considered bigger than the movement. And if that does happen, such a man will have grown to that stature exactly because he is the most capable embodiment of what that movement stands for and hopes to achieve.
Everybody has had a chance at pulling the sword from the 2016 presidential stone. If Huckabee, Santorum, or Rubio (or several others) had built the campaign Cruz has, I would happily be on board. But they didn’t. Cruz did.
A population of die-hards who have attended more conservative book signings and rallies than they can count should no longer be starry-eyed about what is going on here. We can’t proceed as if we are little more than baseball card collectors or NASCAR fans obsessed with a single driver.
None of our gatherings have frankly been worth a warm pile of spit if we can’t coalesce now around a man who can grant American Exceptionalism the booster shot it desperately needs. So if you have a book shelf at home full of preachy tomes and autographed conservative memorabilia, but are still waffling about the path to victory in this race, you missed the whole point of our movement. If indeed a movement we really are, as opposed to an industry.
The 2008 and 2012 Iowa Caucus/GOP presidential primary involved a genuinely difficult decision for voters. That is not the case this time. Either gather around Cruz, on behalf of the values that won the American Revolution, or Trump’s “burn it down” French Revolution will likely win.
For this cycle is about revolution, which is why all the non-revolutionary candidates have been weighed, measured, and rejected by GOP primary voters. And this revolution will be televised, too. It’s just a matter of which revolution’s mission—American or French—will smile for the cameras.
As I wrote here earlier this week, Trump could be unstoppable if he wins Iowa. While his loyalists are people conservatives have often shared common cause with in recent months, and who are justifiably angry by the state of their country and their personal fortunes, let us not pretend we haven’t known all along how raw and unfocused the Trump road into the future will likely be.
And I say that as someone very appreciative of Trump undeniably destroying Jeb Bush and the GOP establishment’s stranglehold on the primary process. Our movement owes him a debt of gratitude for that. But let us also not pretend, on the other hand, that someone who held progressive positions on virtually every meaningful issue just a couple of years ago is really one of us.
If the conservative movement has been about anything other than glorified water cooler talk these many years since Ronald Reagan walked off into the sunset, there is a far better way for them to champion their cause. The pagan-progressive moment that is currently unravelling us has the most to fear from Cruz. If only we will acknowledge he has done everything we have asked for from a standard bearer. He has fought every fight we’ve ever asked someone to take on, and built a professional campaign the likes of which we’ve never seen from a conservative presidential contender.
He has earned our movement’s support. Now it is time for our movement to show it is one, after all, and put all our book sales and sold-out conferences where our mouths have been since the Reagan Revolution.
If not now, at this tipping moment for America, then when?
If the only people I had to worry about were rich real estate developer interests, I would sleep very well tonight.
You’re right — you’re a candidate for the bizarre worry this morning.
I’m worried about the bat-chit crazy climate nuts, the food nazis, the public education overlords, the SJW taking over our tax-funded colleges, the terrorist favoring acolytes, the anti free-speech liberals..I can go on.
Real estate developer interests? lol
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>> “Leave President and VP to people who have actually got things done in life” <<
Correct. Only Cruz among the candidates has such a record of rescuing and upholding our constitution.
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I agree entirely. It’s sad to watch FReepers be so naive. It is the reason pieces like this are written. People who really should know better have been mesmerized by the shiny distractions of the snake oil salesman. It explains why we are where we are, though.
Exactly. All the while proclaiming that they're saving the country. It's just a different flavor of Fundamental Transformation.
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The reason I can’t vote for Trump is that he is an anti-constitutionalist.
His solid embrace of the SCOTUS’ most extreme legislation from the bench is all we need to know about him.
His wives may be prettier, but he thinks much like Obama.
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Oh yay, Conservative Punditry Inc doesn’t go after Jeb or Kasich or Rubio.
It turns on Trump.
This should prove entertaining.
Why not both?
By all account, Cruz is brilliant, an idea man, a legal genius, a historian, someone who knows what to do and where and when to do it. A man with a lot of plans.
Trump, on the other hand, is a person who takes ideas, like blueprints, and turns them into reality, while at the same time selling them to the public.
Much of what the president does is salesmanship. Huge chunks of his time are devoted to ceremonial events and cheer leading.
This is why Trump might be the better president, because Cruz’ time is too precious to waste on ceremonies, dog and pony shows, etc. Cruz needs to be in a place where he can maximize his ideas and bring them into reality.
This is likely not the presidency, but as a justice on the Supreme Court, replacing a liberal. Were Trump elected, then to appoint Cruz to the Supreme Court, it would be a win-win-win for both men and our nation.
To start with, it would make Trump’s presidency much easier, as long as he guided the nation in a conservative direction. This is because by Cruz replacing a liberal, the court would be very conservative, and for many years.
With a firm majority, the SCOTUS could finally take the bureaucracy to task, tearing down the edifices of excess and burdensome government. Using a trick of the liberals, the states could sue the federal government, Trump’s legal council would give a tepid defense, and the court would return power to the states, again and again.
And Cruz might be in this position for 20 or 30 years.
Which line of attack did you like? The Trump is a self-promoting populist leftish carny (true story!) or that he’s been sucking the teat of government largess for decades (he brags about that one!). I’ll probably continue to use both until somebody can show them to be false.
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>> “It’s just a different flavor of Fundamental Transformation.” <<
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Now that truly nails Trump down in all of his manifestations.
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Do you realize you aren't doing Cruz any favors by continuing to post this crap about Trump?
All Trump supporters have to post in response is that Ted has still not taken a stand on deportation.
Ted also voted for fast track and even argued with Sessions about it.
He also said he believed McConnell when his own staff tried to warn him McConnell was lying to him.
I want a Trump/Cruz ticket but every type you and others post this time of trash against Trump it just turns me off on Cruz.
Yes, his eligibility has everything to do with his performance. Had this country not accepted all the twisting of the constitution to make him eligible we wouldn’t have a Marxist leftist in the White House.
I guess though, it’s okay to do it again and get someone who is influenced by North American Union and One World government supporters.
Please open your eyes to facts about Trump, though it's so much more tempting to ignore them.
For example, the man is famous ONLY because he cultivated notoriety. If you think he's famous because of his great business acumen, compare his fame to the nine (at least) billionaire real estate/casino moguls in the U.S. who are so much better at "the art of the deal" than Trump that they out-earn him considerably, the best of whom is worth FOUR TIMES more than Trump's comparatively paltry $3.9 billion. Why have you never heard of them, if brilliant business acumen accounts for Trump's fame?
Trump has a nationwide reputation as a brilliant businessman for ONE REASON ONLY: he marketed himself that way over the past 10 years through MSM venues. That is not a "negative stereotype," it is simple truth. Look it in the face, please, when considering Trump.
McCain attacked Trump earlier this year. Trump defended not by calling McCain out on his bad, flawed politics, but by complaining that McCain isn't really a war hero, because he got captured and with breathtaking arrogance, states, "I like people that weren't captured." (Cue audience conditioned-response laughter, Oh that colorful Trump saying what no one else will say! .. and insulting every POW who ever lived or died.)
While McCain was out there risking getting shot down, captured, and tortured, Trump was home safe a snug thanks to five deferments from the draft, one of them medical even though he had been a star athlete in high school.
"Negative stereotype" -- how about DRAFT DODGER? I don't think of Trump as a draft dodger, actually -- he was in college, I can see him seeking deferments. No, Trump is OUT for me and should be raising serious flags among ALL his American patriot fans, because he behaves like a cad.
Your my idol and I’m taking lessons from you.
When I graduate I’ll have dual majors in concern troll and crackpot.
>>>It would be nice if trump graciously stepped aside for an actual conservative, and would campaign for him<<<
Tell me the last time a Political Candidate with a double digit Lead stepped aside for anyone, EVER?
I’ll have whatever you’re smoking so I can get on board and I’m a Cruz Supporter.
Crony capitalism is a central methodology of the proto-fascist anti-christ regime we currently endure. It is certainly violently contrary to our Constitution, and thus, we should not elect another partaker in the anti-constitutional methodology of proto-fascism.
Sadly, so many still support this candidate and look past the constitutional conservative, Sen. Cruz.
I have watched the majority of Trump’s speeches in their entirety, the latest being Sarasota. I have been very impressed with his energy, his clarity, his willingness to lay out a concise blueprint of his intentions and aims for multiple aspects of his tenure as President. He has consistently been the leader throughout this election campaign, not just in polling but in his ability to define the real issues facing Americans and to elucidate his stand on those issues. He may be blunt but that bluntness is a gift because it exposes the pretty falsehoods that have been entangling and weakening America for a generation such that it can scarcely be recognized as the home of the free & the brave.
He has a track record of being able to accomplish projects & deals on both international & national scales. He is consistent in his concern for the military, the wounded veterans, the security of America and the rebuilding of the American Dream. And he will build that wall and rebuild a stronger American military to keep our Nation safe.
Or the short version is:
For me too!
Both.
ABSOLUTE war would break out in the US if there is any attempt to declare Martial Law (the means by which the SC would cease), so unless the mulatto bastard can foist ML upon us, we HAVE 2017 ... but the imbeds are numerous and deep, it'll take drastic and immediate measures that I'm not sure Cruz would implement
The mulatto bastard can accrue a cabinet because of ideology, Trump can do it because of money and American idealism, Cruz will be the statesman/politician and I fear would have more RINO's than Trump
I believe Trump will be a bull in a china shop and I kind'a LIKE that idea.
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